The Oxford Handbook of Late Antiquity

Edited by Scott Fitzgerald Johnson

Description

The Oxford Handbook of Late Antiquity offers an innovative overview of a period (c. 300-700 CE) that has become increasingly central to scholarly debates over the history of western and Middle Eastern civilizations. This volume covers such pivotal events as the fall of Rome, the rise of Christianity, the origins of Islam, and the early formation of Byzantium and the European Middle Ages. These events are set in the context of widespread literary, artistic, cultural, and religious change during the period. The geographical scope of this Handbook is unparalleled among comparable surveys of Late Antiquity; Arabia, Egypt, Central Asia, and the Balkans all receive dedicated treatments, while the scope extends to the western kingdoms, and North Africa in the West. Furthermore, from economic theory and slavery to Greek and Latin poetry, Syriac and Coptic literature, sites of religious devotion, and many others, this Handbook covers a wide range of topics that will appeal to scholars from a diverse array of disciplines. The Oxford Handbook of Late Antiquity engages the perennially valuable questions about the end of the ancient world and the beginning of the medieval, while providing a much-needed touchstone for the study of Late Antiquity itself.

Part IV. Religions and Religious Identity26. Paganism and Christianization, Jaclyn Maxwell27. Episcopal Leadership, David M. Gwynn28. Theological Argumentation: The Case of Forgery, Susan Wessel29. Sacred Space and Visual Art, Ann Marie Yasin30. Object Relations: Theorizing the Late Antique Viewer, Glenn Peers31. From Nisibis to Xi'an: The Church of the East across Sasanian Persia, Joel Walker32. Early Islam as a Late Antique Religion, Robert Hoyland33. Muhammad and the Qur'an, Stephen J. Shoemaker

Part V. Late Antiquity in Perspective34. Comparative State Formation: The Later Roman Empire in the Wider World, JohnHaldon35. Late Antiquity in Byzantium, Petre Guran36. Late Antiquity and the Italian Renaissance, Christopher Celenza

The Oxford Handbook of Late Antiquity

Edited by Scott Fitzgerald Johnson

Reviews and Awards

"[Johnson] has assembled a comprehensive collection of first rate articles that will figure prominently on the reading lists for graduate and undergraduate courses in years to come and will prove indispensable for scholarly research.... This book is a magnificent testimony to the continued vitality of late antiquity." --The Classical Review